Hand Made Ceramics

I hand build, using coiling, pinching and slabbing techniques

I apply several layers of slip which produces a sultry surface as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I then build a fire that will produce the final surface decoration and relish the moment when I can finally relinquish it to the flames to flick and flash, marking the surface. The rapid changes in temperature within a bonfire sometimes cause cracks to form. I celebrate these ‘battle scars’ by highlighting them with gold leaf echoing the Japanese craft of Kin-tsugi’.

Review

Part obscured – tinged with warmth, licked by flame and caressed with smoke.

These pieces combine a timeless and dark elemental force with a warm familiarity. Like the unearthed finds of an archaeological treasure trove, Jennies’ pieces have a subtle resonance to them that somehow echoes endlessly back through time. Each of these pieces in their own individual way say something about the eternal and symbolic connection between maker and fire. Underlying these initial impressions, we encounter links and clues to the contemporary nature of her work. Angular shapes, constructions and mechanical forms emerge, ancient in their rendition, modern in their frames of reference.

Yet somehow, they don’t sit uncomfortably among forms that seem to conjure with microcosms of landscapes and earthworks. Like a kind of post-modern reliquary there is an element of eclecticism here and a sense that we are viewing something unearthed and treasured. Seldom does one find “burnt offerings” so appetising.

Biog

Jennie, ceramicist and pottery tutor, lives and works in Bridport. She graduated in 2011 with a first class degree in Applied Art & Design. She produces her own handbuilt and thrown pieces and runs a variety of pottery classes. Her current body of work incorporates both functional pieces and sculptural forms influenced by the local landscape, its’ contours, colours and landmarks both ancient and modern. Examining ideas of the lost and found, the concealed and revealed. Jennies’ classes run in and around Bridport, catering for all abilities and are ideal for beginners.